Bandai-Namco's flagship fighting game Tekken is one of the meatiest fighting games around. With Street Fighter V's barebones release last year, Tekken 7 looks to give players a more cohesive package than other fighters, while also significantly changing up key mechanics.

Tekken's system is devilishly simple, with each of the face buttons on the controller corresponding to a limb --square for right punch, triangle for left punch and so on-- allowing players to closely monitor which attacks connect into the next. This control of each limb makes Tekken a careful mastery of moves to catch your opponents out, to make them tumble if they're not defending low, or catching them defenseless if they make a reckless attack. It makes every moment tense, and an exercise of patience rather than simply mashing X until you win. Combining attacks and sending your opponents into the air will help you capitalise on their mistakes, and the way you do this is through a huge variety of fighting styles.

Jin Kazama, one of Tekken's staples, uses traditional Karate moves, Hwoarang uses Taekwondo, Dragunov makes use of Krav Maga and rather infamously, Eddy Gordo is a Capoeira master. This is just a small sample of the different real-life fighting styles that characters use in Tekken 7 that keep the game fresh, and always keep you guessing. These martial arts are full of feints and their own signature flair which is finely imprinted on Tekken's fighting systems. The cast come from all corners of the Earth, and this is reflected in the way that they fight, it's a wonderful representation- with the added flourish of each character speaking their own mother tongues.

Tekken has historically been hinged around the game's combo system, where you chain together attacks in quick succession to trap your opponents. However, Tekken 7 changes the combo system up significantly, and has more of a focus on neutral play (known in the fighting game scene as footsies) with normal attacks taking more of a forefront to scuffles than special moves. This has been aided by the addition of several new mechanics, such as adding the Rage Drive, which is a comeback mechanic which gives your character a high-damaging move when you're running out of health.

These fundamental changes to the moment-to-moment fighting make for slower, more measured gameplay, which also lends itself well to new players. This makes for meatier gameplay, with each hit feeling heavy and weighty. While fighting games can be daunting, the Tekken series has historically been known for being accessible to new players, and this also carries onto the game's story mode.

The latest entry in the series delves back in time to fully explain where the Mishima family feud started. Unfortunately, the story mode is suffers from having a boring visual-novel structure, peppered with the odd cutscene and fight. Instead of being centred around one of the game's principal characters, the story is told from the perspective of an unknown journalist, with bottom of the shelf voice acting to boot. The only real solace to Tekken 7's lackluster story mode is that it's incredibly short, we clocked it in at just 3 hours. There are additional separate character story sections, but these seem to consist of a single fight and a cutscene- a far cry from the hilarious character endings you could get in previous entries. The story mode also features an Easy Mode, where you can chain together intricate combos just by mashing a single button, which is good for new players eager to get their heads around its byzantine narrative.

But the real meat of the game is in its online modes and customisation. You are able to unlock new costumes and items for your characters in the game by playing a 'Treasure Mode' - quick matches against the CPU which net you extra gear to customise and more Fight Money, which you can use to buy items, outfits and hairstyles.

These are all cosmetic changes that you can bring into any mode in the game, from the simple Arcade Mode all the way to the Online Matches. The online mode is split into ranking matches, quick battles and lobbies. Lobbies and the invitation system work very well, with stable connections making the experience easier, but the game continues to frustrate, particularly in 1v1 lobbies. There is no simple 'Rematch' option, kicking you back to the lobby whenever you want to fight again, causing minutes of waiting time between matches. Matchmaking is an equally abysmal affair, with it being almost impossible to find a match in Ranked or Casual modes without almost immediately being disconnected, whether that's down to the high volumes of players online or otherwise, in its current form the matchmaking is completely broken.

If you are getting beaten online, you might look towards Tekken 7's Practice mode for solace- not that you're going to find any. Players wanting a deeper explanation on how to get better at the game are poorly served, with little more than a training dummy and a movelist and no real explanation of how to learn learn Tekken 7's new mechanics. Most mainstream fighters get it wrong - Street Fighter V went a step in the right direction with its character trials, but still faltered at launch. Fighting games continue to attempt to be more accessible, with the recent Injustice 2 being a fine example, but still build huge roadblocks for many, with deeper levels of play only able to be broken down online.

It feels like Namco somehow hit a little bit too early in Tekken 7, much like Street Fighter V before it. Most fighting games seem to ship with fully featured online and offline modes, and armed to the teeth with training options. A great example of this would be the recently released Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2, which provides players an innovative way to matchmake in online lobbies, and extensive training options for those wanting to get better at the game. Other fighting games release thin on content, seemingly with the intention that the strength of the fighting alone will carry the game for players.

The reality is that most people playing Tekken 7 will want to hop online for online matches and get better at the game without having to delve into arcane forums, and learn more about their favourite characters more comprehensively than a short cutscene and single battle. In Local and Private lobbies, Tekken 7 is almost perfect, but comes short of greatness when it comes to looking at the full package, which is a frustrating disappointment.